Foresighted Bull

Sir: Recently I reread your March 24 cover story, "The Recession--How Deep? How Long?", and you deserve an orchid for 20/20 foresight. The stockmarket's action in the last seven months, rising almost 100 points on the Dow-Jones industrial average, has justified your cover captioned "Wall Street Bull: Spring, 1958." Forecasted pickups have likewise occurred in housing, steel and autos--to mention just a few indices --and you are to be commended for your courage in publishing this article when the recession was close to rock bottom. JULIUS M. WESTHEIMER Baltimore

Man of the Year

Sir: Boris Pasternak for Doctor Zhivago--also, for his honesty and integrity, for his fearlessness and self-sacrifice. M. KOFFLER Brooklyn

Sir: Since he is the man who has brought stability to France and hopes for peace to North Africa, I would strongly urge that you select General Charles de Gaulle. ALAN DAVID ENTINE Melbourne, Australia

Sir: Senator Theodore Green of Rhode Island. LAURA J. SMITH New York City

Sir: He should be Adlai E. Stevenson, who remains far and away the wisest voice to be heard in the world today. DAVID PEARSON ETTER Evanston, Ill.

Sir: David Lawrence, editor of US. News and World Report. He has presented information to the people against the subversive influence of those who would impose their sociological theories on us in matters which neither the people nor their elected congress have made law. SIDNEY T. H. CARLSON Tallahassee, Fla.

Sir: Casey Stengel. Who else! FRANCIS J. MOYNIHAN Jamestown, N.Y.

Smearing Cartoons

Sir: I would like to commend TIME, Oct. 27 for printing the cartoons depicting Vice President Nixon's tactics and blunders. They were so very true. MARSHA MASON St. Louis

Sir: Nixon has never shown a white feather concerning Communism. The smearing cartoons by the Washington Post's Herblock and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Mauldin must have caused their editors to give them a "shower" of red stars. It would be appropriate if these cartoonists signed their names in red ink. ANNA MAE G. COUMBOURAS Springfield, Mass.

Sir: Those cartoonists' smear tactics on Nixon are as effective as the Commies' best methods of character assassination. J. H. KURZ San Antonio

Sir: Nixon has said more unkind things about the Democrats than any other politician. MRS. J. W. BOWMAN Winston Salem, N.C.

Sir: The cartoons against Mr. Nixon are shocking--not as political depictions, but by their below-the-belt viciousness. It seems Mr. Nixon is still being Hissed by an unforgiving hard core. H. C. CONWAY San Diego

Tallu at Lunch

Sir: Well, I see Tallulah Bankhead got into the news again, giving a speech at a Democratic luncheon. If that is the type of luncheon the Dems put on, I'll be forced, in the future, to vote for the other party. FRANK THEKAN Wilmette, Ill.

SIR: TIME'S CHARGE THAT I TRIED TO MANEUVER MYSELF INTO HARRY TRUMAN'S LAP AT A DEMOCRATIC LUNCHEON IS OFFENSIVELY FALSE. I GREETED MR. & MRS. TRUMAN AT HIS REQUEST. TALLULAH BANKHEAD NEW YORK CITY

Sweet & Sour Notes

Sir: Viva la diva serena!!! I was very happy to find the one and only Renata gracing your Nov. 3 cover. At last, we are getting even with that certain temperamental diva who got her name on your cover a couple of seasons ago. AVIK GILBOA Los Angeles

P: For the cover story on Soprano Maria Meneghini Callas, see TIME, Oct. 29, 1956.--ED.

Sir: Comparing the glorious singing of Tebaldi to the grotesque noises of Callas is like comparing the painting of the Mona Lisa to a drawing of Orphan Annie. DOUGLAS F. JACKSON New York City

Sir: You say Richard Tucker is the "world's best tenor." This is a silly statement. Mr. Tucker is a good tenor, but Jussi Bjoerling is better. TED DAX Chicago

Sir: Many thanks for bestowing upon me the title of world's best tenor. RICHARD TUCKER Houston

Sir: You say "none of [the Met's big men] compares as box office attractions . . ." with some of the current leading sopranos of the Metropolitan. In opera no artist appears alone. It is the combination of artists, chorus, orchestra, production, etc., that draws, and at the Metropolitan Opera, fortunately the vast majority of our performances are sold out. It has even been suspected that Verdi, Puccini and Mozart have a draw. RUDOLF BING New York City

Sir: Renata won't speak to her daddy, Maria just can't stand her mother, But to Box-Office Bing The important thing Is they go on disliking each other. W. T. WALSH Brooklyn

TIME Listings

Sir: How can you refer to Auntie Mame as an "old bawd" in your Nov. 3 TIME Listings? She may have her faults, but she is always fair, always bright and always a lady. PATRICK DENNIS New York City

P: For a lady, Auntie Mame wasn't too bawd at all.--ED.

How to Keep Friends

Sir: Re "How to Lose Friends" [Oct. 27]: Ben Hecht has many Hollywood friends. I am one. He wrote the screen play of Wuthering Heights for me, also Roadhouse Nights, which introduced the great Durante to the films, and later twice sold me Romeo and Juliet. I still count myself his friend. WALTER WANGER Los Angeles

Alsop's Foibles

Sir: In addition to eight quotations torn out of context, your recent article on me contained no less than seven more or less gross errors of fact. As the article began by getting my name wrong, and finished by getting my weight wrong, it would be too time-consuming to attempt to correct all these errors, one by one. But I must at least correct TIME'S story of my reason for choosing my brother as my partner. I asked my brother to be my partner because I knew he wrote admirably, because I was sure he would be a first-class reporter, and because I could not think of anyone else with these essential assets who did not already have a bigger job than I could then offer. Whoever put into my mouth the pretentious damfool statement that I chose Stew because he was "the only writer . . . one could not throw out of one's rooms," was a liar, and in my opinion a malicious liar. JOSEPH ALSOP Washington, D.C.

P: For the full name, TIME relied upon Joseph Wright Alsop, Jr.-- which is exactly as he gave it to Who's Who and to his syndicate. The source for the statement about his brother insists upon its accuracy. As for the volatile weight, the source is Joseph Alsop, who reported in a Satevepost article what TIME said: that dieting years ago slimmed him down to 175 Ibs. His weight last week: 162.--ED.

Sir: I usually glance at the heading of Joseph Alsop's piece in the Trib and from it often decide it is another psalm in pessimism. Surely his mind and judgment are not so beclouded with pessimism that he will fail to underwrite your analysis too. GEORGE NEUMANN Hollis, N.Y.

Sir: May I commend you on your introspective Oct. 27 article on Joseph Alsop? He has done this nation a great service through his writings. If Mr. Alsop is correct, our very survival is at stake. FRANK D. JACOBS Ann Arbor, Mich.

Flitting Away the Time

Sir: Have they changed sexes in the Soviet Union? "To make beautiful muzhik--give her Red Moscow perfume [Oct. 20]." So far, muzhik has been a male Russian peasant; a female Russian peasant is baba. HELEN A. SHENITZ Juneau, Alaska

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